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Widow of Marine shot by O.C. deputies gives birth to daughter

March 6, 2012 | 10:10
am

The widow of a Marine who was shot by a sheriff’s deputy in San Clemente has given birth to the couple’s fourth child.

The mother was pregnant when Sgt. Manuel Loggins Jr. was fatally wounded early on the morning of Feb. 7. A deputy fired into Loggins' white GMC Yukon as the man's two young daughters sat in a backseat.

The Loggins family's attorney, Brian Dunn, told the Orange County Register that mother and child were doing well.

San Clemente Patch reported that the child is a girl and that the mother entered the hospital Saturday. It was unclear exactly when the baby was born.

"The birth of this child is seen as a blessing, but it does not make up for the enormous curse that the last month has brought this family," Dunn told the Register on Monday.

The Orange County district attorney's office continues to investigate Loggins' death.

Authorities say that Loggins had smashed through a gate to get to the San Clemente High School campus track and had repeatedly failed to heed the commands of the deputy who asked him to stop. The deputy, identified by the department as Darren Sandberg, is a former Marine and has been described as a 15-year veteran.

But as the case has unfolded, the sheriff's department has changed its story. It had first explained the shooting by saying Sandberg had feared for his life, then later announced that the deputy had feared not for himself, but for the safety of Loggins' 14- and 9-year-old children.

The sheriff's union later added that Loggins had been acting "irrationally," putting his daughters at risk. A Camp Pendleton officer responded the next day by denouncing the union's remarks as "incorrect and deeply hurtful."